A Social Justice Guide for your Website (& Business)
As a coach, therapist, or heartfelt human, the healing / bridging / liberating work you do is part of our world’s gentle revolution.
As business owners, we also get to shape culture and consciousness with the way we run our businesses, use our voices, and embody our values. Who we choose to uplift. What we choose to defy. It all matters.
Many of us want to contribute in a bigger way, but aren’t sure how. In this post, I’ve gathered ideas for how our businesses can be a deeper expression of collective care.
Please don’t see this as a list of ‘shoulds’. My invitation is to tune in to what matters most to you, and consider taking 1-2 actions that feel aligned for you right now.
I am (forever) a work-in-progress when it comes to social justice, as is this piece. I am taking mindful steps to implement some of these ideas in my own business, and welcome loving feedback and input. If you think this would be a helpful resource for those in your community, please do share!
Summary
(2) Express your Business Commitments
Dedicated Statement Pages (anti-racism, diversity, code of conduct, etc)
(3) Your Offerings
(I) Reflect on your Causes
There are so many causes to care about. Whether it’s racism, sexism, gun violence, climate change, poverty, LGBTQ+ rights, or f*cking genocide.
I don’t think our little businesses can or should serve every person and cause. But I do think we can double-down on where our heartbreak and gifts intersect.
To avoid this becoming a performative box-ticking exercise, I invite you to reflect on the causes closest to your heart, and that you are (intent on) learning about and acting on in real life. These are some of the prompts I give my Brand & Website Therapy clients:
What are some of the injustices in the world that most upset you?
What are some of the causes that most move you?
How can your work (directly or indirectly) support these causes?
What would you say is your ‘sacred cause’?
(II) Your Business Commitments
There are many ways you can express your commitments through your website, be it through a Values section, a Manifesto, or a dedicated Statement page. Doing this (1) helps crystallise what matters to us; (2) holds us more accountable to our commitments; (3) creates a safer space for our community; and (4) helps us call in our kindred spirits.
(1) Your Website Copy
Here are examples from some of my client websites of how you can weave your values, causes and commitments into your website copy - click on the images for a closer look.
(2) Indigenous Acknowledgements
Acknowledging the indigenous roots of the tools and practices that you use, and the land you live and work on, is a way of showing respect to their traditional custodians. This can include acknowledging your own ancestral lineage. I believe this is part of the decolonisation that need to happen in our world, our culture, and our own minds.
(I) Acknowledgement of Tools & Practices:
Indigenous Medicine Woman, Asha Frost is a wonderful teacher on the topic of cultural appropriation VS cultural appreciation in the wellness industry. She wrote a poignant letter that went viral back in 2019 called ‘Dear White Woman who wants to be like Me’. I can’t for the life of me find it online anymore, but I do have a 4-min clip from the Julie in Conversation podcast of Asha reading her letter aloud. I so recommend listening:
This Indigenous Allyship Guide offers a great summary of some of Asha’s key teaching in her book You are the Medicine. You can put these into practice by researching and reflecting on the origins of your tools and practices, actively seeking out indigenous teachers, amplifying their voices, acknowledging them in your work and website, etc.
Here are examples of dedications and acknowledgements from my client websites - click on the images for a closer look.
Rachael Collins, Shamanic Mediumship & Somatic Psychotherapy
(II) Land Acknowledgement:
Acknowledgment of Country originated in Australia, and has been adopted in other countries with significant indigenous populations, e.g. New Zealand, US, Canada, etc.
Here’s an example of a Land Acknowledgement statement, which can be placed in your website footer, or elsewhere on your site:
“I acknowledge the [Name of Indigenous People] as the traditional custodians of the [Name of Land] on which we [live/work/operate]. I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge their ongoing connection to the land, waters, and community.”
Take the time to research for accuracy, and consult with local indigenous communities if you’re not sure about the correct protocols and language. For more on Land Acknowledgment, read this guide from nativegov.org.
(3) Dedicated Statement Pages
For more detailed statements, you can create dedicated pages on your website, that you link to via your footer. For example:
This Anti-Racism Statement (The Ethical Move)
This Code of Conduct Page (The Ethical Move)
A Land Acknowledgement Page (A guide from nativegov.org)
This Diversity Statement (Rooted Mystic)*
*I love how Angel of Rooted Mystic is so honest and transparent about where she’s at in her learning. Many of us let the fear of ‘not knowing enough’ or ‘getting it wrong’ paralyze us. But we don’t have to be experts to be part of the change. In fact, effective allyship requires that we are forever (un)learning our own blindspots and biases.
(4) Footer Statements
As mentioned above, your footer is a great place to:
Link to your Statement Pages;
Include a Land Acknowledgement Statement; and…
Display badges for causes you support (e.g. LGBTQ+);
Display logos of charities or social justice groups that you support or partner with.
(III) Your Offerings
Here are ideas for how you can support the causes you care about through the structure, focus, and pricing of your offerings:
(1) Pricing that supports economic justice
Sliding Scales: You can offer your work at a range of price points, or create a sliding scale for certain offerings. Alexis J Cunningfolk’s Green Bottle Method is a great example of a sliding scale model; you can see how I integrated it into Rachael Collin’s offering page.
Pay it Forward: When I worked with Kolleen Bouchane on her website, we created a Pay it Forward system where clients with more can donate to those with less. You can see this in action at the bottom of Kolleen’s coaching page (Squarespace has an awesome donation feature in case you’re wondering!)
Scholarships: You can offer scholarships or subsidies for certain offerings. The Green Bottle criteria below may help you in defining your parameters.
Pro Bono: You could also allocate a portion of your work and time to supporting certain individuals, communities or organisations for free.
(2) Donating & Fundraising
You could donate a portion of your income to a particular charity or organisation, and/or create an offering that is specifically intended as a fundraiser. Again, Squarespace has a great donation feature for this. Read this post for more detailed guidelines on how to set this up in an effective and transparent way.
(3) Cause-specific Offerings
Some of us may already have social justice baked into who we serve and what we do. For the rest of us, we can always create a side-offering that is specific to a cause. For example, my client Kolleen Bouchane is a work-life coach who feels passionate about climate change. This initially seemed unrelated to her day-to-day work, but we ended up creating an additional Climate Coaching offering on her website so that she could support leaders ‘turn their feelings into fuel’.
(IV) Diversity & Inclusion
As shared above, our unique medicine isn’t necessarily for every person and cause. We may feel called to serve a particular gender or age group (teenagers who are transitioning, women in their middle-years), a particular profession (therapists or entrepreneurs), or any number of identities (HSPs, trauma survivors, those with chronic illness, marginalised groups, etc.).
However, within the community that we do feel called to serve, there may be room for more diversity and inclusion. For example, I primarily serve women who are coaches and therapists (because my work draws on my lived experience as a therapist and woman who’s undoing her own patriarchal conditioning). However, there’s more I can do to ensure that anyone who identifies as a woman feels safe and welcome regardless of their sexuality, gender, age, race, etc.
(I) inclusivity in our language
In reviewing the language on our websites, we can look for unnecessarily gendered terms, stereotypes, or perspectives that may exclude or marginalize certain groups. We can state our pronouns to affirm that gender identity is varied and personal. We can craft a Code of Conduct to help keep our online spaces safe and respectful.
(II) diversity in our visuals
We can create more representation in our website’s visuals by using images, videos, and graphics that feature people from different backgrounds, races, genders, ages, abilities, and ethnicities.
(III) Web Accessibility
Web or digital accessibility refers to “the process of making websites and other digital experiences accessible to everyone, regardless of ability” (Level Access). You can read more about web accessibility best practices here.
There are some great accessibility plugins such as Userway (this is the free version) that allows users to customise their experience with your website. Click on the bottom left icon on my site to see this in action.
(V) Using your Platform
There is of course so much we can do outside of our websites, both online or offline. I think we so often underestimate the power we have to affect change when it comes to the bigger injustices in the world. But when I think about my journey of awakening when it comes to Gaza, it really was ‘regular’ women with relatively modest followings that opened my mind and heart to what is going on. By sharing their heartbreak and raising awareness, they created a ripple effect in me and so many others. This is exactly how change happens. One human heart at a time.
And so I encourage you to use your platform - be it your blog, newsletters, podcast, Instagram, or in-person engagements - to raise awareness about the issues that you care about. You voice DOES matter. You absolutely CAN make a difference.
If you found this guide helpful, I’d love for you to share it with your community too!
Hey there!
I’m Christina Paul, a therapist turned Brand Therapist, here to help women share their medicine with the world through branding, websites, and visibility.
I work mainly with coaches, therapists, creatives and change-makers - women who are part of the gentle revolution our world so desperately needs.
If you’re feeling a connection, feel free to explore my offerings, find me on Instagram or subscribe to my e-community for love letters sent straight to your inbox.
